Castlemaine art museum to stay open

An eleventh hour donation from an anonymous white knight has saved the Castlemaine Art Museum from immediate closure, with the $250,000 gift ensuring its doors stay open for at least two more years.

About 400 members of the central Victorian gallery met at the Castlemaine town hall tonight to hear board chairwoman Jan Savage announce the last-minute reprieve.

All that is known about the anonymous donors is that they are a couple from central Victoria with family ties to the district and who were regular visitors to the gallery.

“We see this as an opportunity to secure the museum’s long-term future and develop it as a one of the premium provincial museums in Australia,” they said in a statement released on their behalf by Sotheby’s auction house.

Another $50,000 from the Macfarlane family was also offered to the 104-year-old gallery since it broke the news last month that rising costs and reduced revenue would see the venue shuttered.